As we were preparing to make our recent trip to Colorado, the district attorney in Denver decided not to file criminal charges against the group of corrections deputies who, according to the coroner, were responsible for the death of an inmate in a local jail.

Marvin Booker, who was a preacher and homeless, was 56 years old. He was 5-foot-5 and weighed 135 pounds, and suffered from emphysema and an enlarged heart. Back in July, Booker was arrested on the misdemeanor charge of possession of drug paraphernalia, and he was waiting to be booked when a conflict arose. All of it was caught on video, which the state refuses to make public. DA Mitch Morrissey said in a statement that Booker refused to follow an order from a female deputy, then cursed her and “violently resisted.”

As the Denver Post reports, Denver’s Office of the Coroner listed the cause of death as “cardiorespiratory arrest during physical restraint,” and ruled it a homicide. The Post continues:

But it was up to Morrissey to determine whether the deputies were legally justified in handling Booker the way they did. At one point, according to the coroner’s review of the video, four deputies lay on top of the 135-pound Booker while a fifth discharged a Taser into his legs. After Booker was carried face-down into a holding cell, a deputy remained on top of him for another 90 seconds to two minutes…

Other inmates and an attorney for Booker’s family said Morrissey failed to take into account that the confrontation could have been avoided by deputies. Booker…was trying to retrieve his shoes before being placed in a holding cell, according to witnesses, when he was grabbed by a deputy and ordered to comply immediately.

But DA Morrissey insists that Booker alone was responsible for his own demise. “Mr. Booker’s actions and choices resulted in his death,” he said in a statement, suggesting that unruly behavior by a prisoner justifies a use of force sufficient to kill him.”Had he complied, had he given them his arms, had he gone to the holding cell when he was asked to,” Morrissey said, “this never would have happened.”

2 thoughts on “The Colorado Files: Death in a Denver Jail”

Everyone knows who the complicit murdering criminals are. We are not under Mitch Morrissey’s satanic spell or influence. We can see. But you keep selling the wanting-your-shoes-is-a-capital-offense story your peddling Mitch, while the Holy Spirit directs justice towards you.